We have many questions about the future, such as whether artificial intelligence will take over, if we will be able to teleport one day, whether there will be enough jobs in the future, and whether a nuclear war will destroy our planet. In What we see in the smoke, Ben Berman Ghan imagines a world where these scenarios have come true. I had the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book and it blew my mind! Before I gush all over it, here is the synopsis:
The world we know is coming to an end. How will we connect in the strange and frightening one that’s coming to take its place?
What We See in the Smoke twists the genres of realism and science fiction to tell the future history of Toronto, a story that stretches from this millennium to the next. The novel leaps across the boundaries of time and space, as present and future Torontonians search for meaning, connection, and love in a city that grows more beautiful and frightening as its familiar characteristics fade away.
A musician is caught in an endless time loop unable to reach those he loves, two broke and desperate men plan a heist of a cannibal auction, a detective with sinister proclivities hunts for a criminal who is stealing dreams, and a college student searches for his brother in the hours before a nuclear war. All of these and more lead to a world where only rich cyborgs or the homeless remain, where teleportation has made crime impossible, and where city-sized spaceships are maintained by strange creatures while planet Earth itself is left behind.
My Short Take – From Goodreads
What we see in the smoke is a collection of short stories set in 2016-3036. Most are based in Toronto, Canada, while some follow people who originated from there. Each story is a mystery in itself – I was hooked because I wanted to know who was narrating it and what role did they play in the grand scheme of things. With elements from I, Robot, and narration from a variety of perspectives, each story is about identity and adjusting with reality. In some, the narrators themselves are struggling to understand who they are. In others, they are trying to understand what the world has become.
The stories touch on issues such as cannibalism, human organ trafficking, acceptance of androids as being alive, in a personal way, looking at how and why humanity will get there. Also taking a deeper dive into what an artificial intelligence might think like one day, struggling with its own identity and in some cases, to make sure that the humans it loves survive.
Ben created a world that I want to go back to, based on all the different narratives, piece together what really happened that all these events transpired. It is unclear why the musician was in an endless loop, and how with a click, humans were able to teleport and why everyone had to get implants… but those are the very elements of science fiction and realism.
The Long Take – Themes for Thought
The Future of Earth
Will a nuclear war destroy the world as we know it? Or will something else make us leave? Here are some shows that I follow which portray different reasons for seeking other planets as new homebases.
The 100 
Lost in Space 
Extinction
- The 100: A nuclear apocalypse wipes out the population on Earth and makes it inhabitable for almost a century. Thousands of people live on a space station where three generations have been born. Now, they are running out of space and it is time to check if Earth is habitable again.
- Lost in Space: Astronomical objects collide with Earth causing widespread destruction and threatening the survival of humanity. Meantime, colonist missions have been deployed to find home on other planets.
- Extinction: This one is film about alien invasion of Earth. I do want to spoil it for you so watch it if you haven’t already. It’s on Netflix.
Check out Digital trends for more post-apocalyptic show recommendations.
What we see in the smoke is not about what happened to Earth and why. It is about living with what is happening, war or no war, space station or planet. The protagonists in each of the stories do the best that they can with the situation they have been put in, whether it is to find their loved ones or save them.
The Future of Work
I have been researching digitalization of businesses recently, about how businesses must adapt with the evolving technology and the kind of jobs that will be done by robots in the near future. Nobody wants their job to be given to robots. We all fear that. Companies are actively researching the skills that they need in their workforce and would train their employees before a major change happens.
But in the society that Ben imagines, at some point, this did happen. One of the stories in What we see in the smoke features an android that would sing. People would go listen to her at the end of the day, hanging out at the bar to catch her attention. When I have thought about the future and the jobs that we will be automating, I think of the repetitive tasks. It never crossed my mind that one could replace artists!
You might think that it is not possible but if one person can imagine it then I bet someone in the future can justify it. Maybe people will develop a taste for androids singing. Who is to say otherwise? We already have services available that can generate articles for us, outsourcing writing to software.
I imagine there will have to be more scientists. If space exploration truly takes over, then skills that pilots and astronauts have, might have to become universal.
It is interesting to read and speculate. I finally had a reason to just sit and think about possibilities, compare my imagination to the world that Ben has created.
The Future of Us
Between all the technology, automation, space travel, changing landscapes of cities, there will always be room for introspection. Ben’s stories in What we see in the smoke make the time for characters to do that. That is prevalent through all the human narratives and it reminds me of the impending loneliness that might come when the world seizes to be what we know it. That happens now too sometimes when we look back at the decisions we make.
Though the stories span decades, the essential elements are us – humans – and what will happen to us, how we will adapt to the changes. Our feelings of love, desperation and nostalgia will continue to stay with us, no matter where we are and what year it is.
My favourite stories were Closing Time and The War with Space. While one was about a diner run by androids that has fallen to ruin because of the nuclear war, the other is about androids fighting a hole in a spaceship that is transporting humans.
The future can be as much a myth as the past.
From Closing time
I truly enjoyed this book because it is the only one I have ever read that tried to answer the big questions we have around data, automation and computers. Ben showed the reader pieces of numerous lives that were affected by telling stories with unique voices. I will revisit the book over the years because as I see more technological advancements, I will compare them to the big picture I read about in fragments in this book, scattered over more than a century.
Stay tuned for an exclusive interview with Ben Berman Ghan! 🙂
** What we see in the smoke is out now so get a copy and let me know what you think! Let’s have a discussion about the future! **
Cover image and sunset image from VisualHunt.com. Covers of TV shows from Google Images.
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